Adelaide Before
by Ecrit
Summary: Adelaide is a princess that falls in love with a vain and mysterious young Lord that visits her palace the day of her coming-of-age ball. Stand- Alone prequel of sorts to Arranged.
1. Seventeen

Adelaide jumped out of her bed that morning, sprinting to the washroom. She was turning seventeen today and she was beyond excited. Her official training to be the next queen would begin today and she got ready quicker than she had ever done before.

When she got to the courtyard her father was already there, trying to teach her best friend Carla how to fence. It was a comical sight, a petit blonde girl pouting and holding forward a sword as her father tried to teach her a proper stance.

"Adelaide!" Both her father and Carla, the petite blonde sighed in relief as they saw her running down the stairs.

"Thank god you're here! Father was trying to force me to fight!" She complained.

Adelaide turned towards her father, "Really Papa?" She asked. "As if me trying to make her learn the past ten years wasn't enough?"

Her father just laughed, "Happy Birthday Addy." He said pulling her to a hug. She could feel Carla hugging joining them both in a hug.

"You're seventeen!" The girl squealed and Adelaide grinned.

"So, are you up for your first duel of your first day as queen-in-training?" Her father asked her, pulling out his sword. She grinned.

"Can I use the knives?" She asked, a little nervous. Her parents didn't particularly approve of the long knives, they preferred that she use a short sword, or anything really rather than them. The long knives required you to be incredibly close to the opponent, and it was maybe the most dangerous and difficult to master weapon.

Of course, it wasn't like she ever listened to her parents, she practiced it all the time and her father would let her practice, just never use it in a tournament.

"It's your birthday, you can use anything you want." Her father replied and she grinned. She had been practicing incredibly hard.

Running over to the weapons shack she pulled out the two old rarely used long knives from the shelves and ran out to her father.

Carla moved to the side of the court and the soldiers gathered around to watch. It was always interesting to watch a match between her and her father. They were known to be the best warriors in the land, though she had never beaten her father in a match. This would be the first time she went against him with the knives, ever since she was eight but back then she hadn't been any good at any sort of weapon.

Her father grinned at her as they began, circling each other and waiting for the other to strike. Her father went first, and her grin widened. He had never gone against her with the knives and she knew she could use this against him. The mistakes she made with other weapons were different from the mistakes that she would make with the knives.

They sparred for a long time, from the corner of her eye she saw her younger brother join the soldiers as they stood and watched. Carla was doing a small dance in the side cheering her on and she knew she was taking her side just because she usually lost.

Some soldiers were making bets and she refocused her attention on her father. Every strike she was able to deflect with her knives. Her arms were getting slightly sore and she began dodging, she knew her father would see this as a weakness but it would give her more of an edge.

She was a girl, and by far more agile than her bulky father. She slid past his arm and drop kicked so that he would have to jump. In a flash she was behind him, one arm putting him in a chokehold with the blade right next to his neck and the other knife on his sword arm.

Her father had nowhere to move, and in his short pause she kicked the sword our of his hand.

Her father looked at her with a mix of surprise and pride.

She had beat her father.

After seventeen years of practicing she had beat her teacher.

"I won." she said softly, shocked. She saw a soldier slipping coins into her brother's hand.

Her father bowed at her and she copied him. "Good job."

The soldiers had scattered, some of them came up to her and congratulated her. She saw her little brother walk to her. "Thanks for winning, I had my money on you."

She raised her eyebrows.

"What? Maybe I'll beat you when I'm seventeen too." He said and she rolled her eyes.

"You wish." She answered cockily.

"Addy..." Her father called from across the courtyard and she walked towards him.

"Yes papa?" She asked.

"Don't you want your present now?" He asked his eyes twinkling and she looked around to see what it was.

"Not now, your mother wants you to go get her some tea from the kitchens. She wants you to look good for your visit to the temples." Adelaide pouted.

"Even on my birthday she's making me get her food." She grumbled running to the kitchens. She was sweaty and grimy and she knew her mother would make a fuss and make her shower again before giving her a new gown like she did every year. Not that she didn't like getting new dresses, she did, and her mother had impeccable taste.

The tea was already ready for her to take when she got to the kitchen and she hurried to her mother's room. Excited to tell her that she'd finally beat her father and to get the new gown.

Her mother was fixing her hair when she walked in and she smiled warmly at her when she entered.

"Good, you didn't forget the tea." Her mother winked at her. "Happy Birthday baby." She said hugging her.

"Thank mommy, what did you get me?" she asked cheekily and her mother glared at her sighing. "How in the world will we make you a proper qeen when you are so incredibly cheeky?" She asked walking towards the closet.

"Go wash yourself and then you can put this on." Her mother said pulling out a dark navy gown. It was made of lace that made patterns of vines through the dress in a slightly lighter tone of red.

"Its so beautiful!" She touched the dress.

"Yes, and you can wear it as soon as you clean up. I have the same one in pink for Mouse." Adelaide rolled her eyes. Her mother always got her and Carla matching gowns in different colours, whenever they had any birthdays or balls their dresses would've different versions of one thing.

It didn't take her long to was, and when she came out she could see Carla spinning around in her new dress as her mother scolded her to stay still while she tightened the corset.

"Don't make it too tight!" she squealed.

Adelaide slipped into her's tightening her corset on her own.

"No go in front of Mouse and she'll do it for you." Her mother commanded and Adelaide huffed to stand in front of Carla.

When they were all done they walked to the throne room. They would be going to the parade soon, it was in honor of her seventeenth. There was always a yearly parade for the queen, and now that she had reached of age there would be one every year for her alongside her mother 'suntil her mother was no longer queen.

She was excited to attend, though she would miss being able to sneak around the city unnoticed with the commoners.

"I beat papa for the first time today." She tried to say nonchalantly. Her mother raised her eyebrows at her.

"I would have expected you to be more excited about that." She said.

"Yeah well... I am, but I'm trying to be modest." she said.

Her mother just laughed as they entered the throne room. It was quiet today since most of the council memebers were out for the month. Her birthmonth had happened to be in the month where absolutely no politics ever happened which always made it much better. There were a few soldiers standing guard and her father was already seated on the king's throne.

"You get to sit in the middle now." Her mother pointed at the slightly smaller throne that had been placed between the ones of the king and queen's.

Adelaide jogged to her new throne and winked at her brother who had to stand next to her mother's throne. Carla stood below them where the noblemen stood.

Slowly the castle gates opened and Adelaide took a deep breath. The soldiers took their places while people began entering the castle.

There were hoards of villagers people from all over the country coming in to visit her. She sighed, trying to calm herself as the first woman approached.

"Happy coming-of-age your highness." She gave a wobbly curtsy and Adelaide tried to give her her most friendly smile.

"Thank you," She replied.

She sat there until one, greeting the commoners and answering problems that they had and graciously accepting their gifts. There were some nobles strewn in between them.

Some of the gifts were very odd while some of them were incredibly sweet.

She knew that there were many of them giving her gifts when they could barely afford to. She was glad that she had asked her mother to allow her to give gifts back to people.

When one little girl came up with a boquet of flowers Adeaide asked if she wanted to sit up here with her. The girl gladly accepted sitting on her lap.

She didn't seem to have any shoes and her dress was torn. Adelaide wondered if she was an orphan because there were no parents with her.

It could have been that they hadn't been able to go in due to the fact that only a few people were allowed into the castle every year. These people had all come early in the morning to be chosen to enter.

She stayed until the last person was gone before carrying the little girl out with her. Sure enough, her parents were standing outside arguing with the guard.

"Did you see a small blonde girl!?" They were asking. "She might have gone inside!" They seemed terrified and Adelaide coughed quietly for their attention.

"Is this your daughter?" She asked and the parents nodded barely noticing her.

"Oh! Zel! Are you okay darling?" They patted the girl off and looked up to thank her. It was only then that they recognized her.

"Y-your highness?" the asked.

"Hello." She curtsied at them. "This is a very polite young girl you've got here." She said kindly.

"Thank you your highness." they said. "I hope she didn't trouble you."

"Oh no trouble at all, she's really quite sweet." She answered.

The little girl's parents rode off with her as Adelaide looked at them. They turned back every few seconds as if to assure themselves that they had really met the princess.

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**Arranged is the official fic behind this series of chapters that i'll be posting. This is just to give more background knowledge for that story! **

**If you like this you should definitely read Arranged. **

**Review!**


	2. Ballroom Mystery

**Second part! This isn't going to be longer than maybe five chapters max but hopefully you'll still like it!**

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The festival had gone well and she was now wandering the ballroom with Carla. She'd had a few dances with some very handsome noblemen, and even some attractive commoners who had been able to attend.

Every one of her birthday balls, since she was ten had been open for commoners that were around her age. There weren't enough nobles her age to befriend, and many of them were frankly just snooty and annoying.

"He's cute." She heard Carla point out at a boy that was now walking towards them.

"Which one do you think he'll ask? You or me?" She asked. They were all masked so nobody would know she was the princess until the absolute end. Of course, some people had probably figured it out already.

"Five quarts its you." Adelaide whispered.

"You're on." was Carla's reply. Her face fell when the boy walked towards Adelaide however. Adelaide rolled her eyes, wishing Carla would speak up when she was interested in someone. She made eye contact with the boy and tilted her head towards Carla as if asking him to ask her instead. The boy raised his eyebrows then changed course and walked up to Carla.

"Would you be so kind as to dance this dance with me m'ilady?" He asked. Carla glared at her, she'd probably noticed Adelaide's interference.

"I win." She whispered as her friend went off.

She stood there alone as the next song came on. Her brother was across the room talking to a girl she recognized as the kitchen maid. She scowled. She'd never liked that girl and she knew of her brother's infatuation with her. Something always felt wrong about her, as if she was always scheming something.

She was thinking about walking over to them when she felt a tap on her shoulders. She turned around to see a man with a black eye-mask on. He had olive skin and his eyes twinkled behind the mask.

She curtsied lightly.

"Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?" He asked. He had a light smirk on his face and she swooned internally as he took her hand and led her to the dance floor. His voice sounded like velvet and she felt like she was melting.

Who was this?

He didn't speak much, but she enjoyed dancing with him. So much that she danced with him the whole night.

She had always loved dancing, for the same reason as she loved fighting. There was a rythm for her movement and she felt as if she owned the world while doing it.

She could hear him softly humming the music as they danced and he seemed to enjoy dancing with her as well because he asked her for the next dance and the dance after that.

On their fifth dance together she caught Carla's eye, she was staring at her interestedly. Her brother was as well, he was dancing with the kitchen maid, who was dressed in a pretty silver dress she recognized as one of her own that she'd sent down to the kitchens after she'd worn it out.

By the end of the ball, she hadn't danced with anyone but this mysterious man. Her mother came to take her to the front for the unmasking and she dragged the mystery man with her.

Her mother gave her an interested look before leading her to the front.

It was during the unmasking, of course he had figured out who she was already and she took off her mask, thanking everyone for coming to the ball and hoping that they had enjoyed themselves.

Everyone began taking their masks off, and when she went out of the stage the mysterious man was still there.

"Aren't you going to take that off?" She asked.

"Care to do it for me?" He asked and she bushed reaching towards him and pulled it off.

Her stomach did a flip as she realized that he was absolutely gorgeous.

Carla gave her a look and she grinned.

"What is your name?" She asked.

"Rowan Daryan your highness," he answered and she nodded.

"How is Lord Daryan doing?" She asked, she hadn't known that the sweet old man she remembered as Lord Daryan had a son.

"He passed away a few weeks ago." A flash of sadness went through his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." She said quietly.

"Its okay, he lived a very full life." He answered.

"I did not know that he had any children." she said. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"He did not have any children." Rowan answered. "I was just a boy he found on the streets."

Adelaide had no clue how to reply to that when Carla came towards them. "Addy, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" She asked.

Adelaide grinned at her friend who looked at her slyly. "Of course, Rowan this is Lady Carla Maria, Carla, this is Lord Rowan."

"How do you do?" Rowan murmured, taking Carla's hand and kissing it gently. Carla blushed red.

Adelaide felt a soft stab of jealousy but squished it down.

Lord Rowan left soon afterwards and Carla and Adelaide started off as soon as he left about how perfect he had been.

"And his voice! I could listen to it forever!" She swooned as they sat on the floor of the empty ballroom. The last of the people had left and they were the only people in the giant hall.

"You danced with him all night!" Carla squealed. "It was like one of those fairy tales. He was like your Prince Charming!"

"Prince Charming?" She said, "I would be the hansome prince since I'm the royalty." She said.

Carla laughed. "Of course, since you're also the bravest knight in the country. You could rescue him from ogres and dragons!"

"If they existed yes, I could." She said rolling her eyes. "He was so amazing." She sighed.

"And absolutely gorgeous!" Carla said dreamily.

The next morning a letter was delivered to her early in the morning. It was addressed to her by a Rowan Daryan.

She sprinted down the hall to Carla's room waving the letter. She had been sound asleep when Adelaide had barged into her room.

They had read the first letter together and carefully written a perfect reply.

For the next year Adelaide recieved and sent letters constantly from Lord Daryan. Her entire family knew about it and the servants whispered about it in the halls, knowing that their little princess was apparantely completely smitten with a young lord.

She would talk about it before and after her Queen-training, her weapons training, her studies, her everything.

Every time she got a letter she would read it out loud to Carla who would then in turn help her reply to it.

Talk began to spread about her and Lord Daryan throughout the country, though everyone only knew of him as "the young princess' infatuation"

Soon, her parents invited Lord Daryan to stay at the castle for a few days to which he gladly accepted.

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**If you like it review! And read Arranged which is much longer, though it might spoil the ending for this or make you incredibly confused for a while. **


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